while Irish
members pleaded for it. But in three weeks the English parliament passed a
conscriptive act for Ireland, though the Irish party was solid against it."
On this platform, Sinn Fein won seventy-three out of 105 seats.

If Sinn Fein is to relieve the social conditions in Ireland, it must, say
Sinn Feiners, find out the cause. So they have pondered on this question:
What is the cause of the unemployment in Ireland today? The answer to that
question was the one point that the sharp-mustached, sardonic little Arthur
Griffith, founder of Sinn Fein, wanted the American delegates from the
Philadelphia Race Convention to carry back to America.

It was revealed at a meeting of the Irish parliament specially called for
the delegates. Cards were difficult to get for that meeting, and as each
one passed through the long dreary ante-room of the circular assembly hall
of the Mansion House, he was subjected to close scrutiny by the two dozen
Irish volunteers on guard. In the civilian audience there was a sprinkling
of American and Australian officers. Up on the platform was the throne of
the Lord Mayor, in front of which sat the delegates--Frank Walsh, Edward F.
Dunne, and Michael Ryan. In a roped-off semi-circle below the platform were
deep upholstered chairs wherein rested the members of the Irish parliament.
Countess Markewicz was, of course, the only woman there. White-haired,
trembling-handed Laurence Ginnel, who is given long jail terms because he
refuses to take his hat off in a British court, sat forward on his chair.
The rich young Protestant named Robert Barton regarded the crowd through
his shining eyeglasses. Keen, boyish Michael Collins, minister of finance,
fingered the paper he was going to read. The last two men had recently
escaped from prison and were wanted by the police--both, as they say in
Ireland, were "on the run."

"England kills Irish industry," said the succinct Arthur Griffith as he
rose from the right hand of DeValera to address the delegates. "Early in
the nineteenth century, England wanted a cheap meat supply center. She
therefore made it more profitable for the landowners in Ireland to grow
cattle instead of crops. Only a few herders are required in cattle care. So
literally millions of Irish, tillers of the soil and millers of grain, were
thrown out of employment, and from 1841 to 1911 the population fell from
8,000,000 to 4,400,000. Today, Ireland, capable of supporting 16,000,000,
cannot ma